1.5 million Americans suffer from autoimmune-induced type 1 diabetes, which indicates a complete loss of islet function controlling the glucose level in blood. Either continuous exogenous insulin or transplantation of insulin-producing islets is necessary for patients. Conventional islet transplant involves isolating donor islets from a pancreas and transplanting them into the recipient’s liver. Subcutaneous (SC) site islet transplantation (SCIT) is minimally-invasive with easy follow-up, paving the way to expand islet transplantation for diabetes. Major challenges in SCIT include low oxygen for and low vascularity for sustained islet viability. We are developing a multi-functional nanofiber (NF) vehicle (Fig. 1) to deliver the oxygen to SC sites over a long-term period. Catalase and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) can be embedded into the core and sheath NF. Catalase enzyme decomposes the reactive intermediate H2O2 → H2O + O2 to protect cells from damage and provide a source of oxygen, while the VEGF promotes vascularization to the newly grafted islets. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) NF loaded with calcium peroxide (CPO) showed burst oxygen amounts of 15 – 22 mg/L in the first 2 hours and sustained oxygen release of 10 – 16 mg/L over a 5-day period. The electrospun fiber membrane is shown to be a versatile oxygen delivery platform for SCIT.

Multifunctional core-sheath nanofibers for oxygenation of cell islet transplantation

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